Our Working Groups

The Black Immigrant Engagement Initiative (BIEI) is a collaborative effort of Black-led community-based organizations and legal services providers to engage, mobilize, and support African, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latino immigrant communities in New York City. A core goal of BIEI is to integrate these Black immigrant New Yorkers and their voices into the broader immigrant rights movement.

Some of the issues the Collaborative works on include language access, participatory budgeting, resident equity voting rights, voting access and rights, immigrant representation, campaign finance reform board of elections reform, and justice for job seekers. Efforts of the Collaborative focus on various parts of New York State where we believe immigrant communities are most impacted.

Since February of 2017, the NYIC has been hosting meetings with a diverse set of groups to strategize on federal immigration advocacy. Within the DONY group, we have also created topic specific working groups, to further collaboration with other organizations. The working groups focus on topics including: the Muslim/refugee ban, working with labor partners, healthcare, DACA, rapid response, family and business immigration, and resisting the deportation force.

The NYIC’s Education Advocacy Collaborative works to improve the quality of education for New York’s English Language Learner (ELL) and immigrant student population and to ensure that parents have opportunities to meaningfully engage in their children’s education.

The Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (Immigrant ARC) is made up of nearly sixty non-profit organizations providing or support legal services to New York’s immigrant communities. The goals of Immigrant ARC are to pool knowledge, resources, and expertise to ensure that immigration attorneys throughout New York State are prepared to defend our communities.